Ep. 73 - RIP Kyle Busch + NASCAR (Charlotte) and IndyCar (Indy 500) Preview

This is without a doubt the hardest episode I’ve ever recorded and one of the hardest days of my life; not that I ever liked Kyle Busch, I hated him for basically the entire 10+ years I’ve been watching NASCAR, but I always respected him as a damn good race car driver and this just sucks. To go from winning your 69th Truck race and your 234th national series win (both are records) a week ago to now this is just heartbreaking and I can barely process words together. Me and my co-host Evan Sager both pray for wife Samantha, kids Brexton and Lennix, brother Kurt, the whole Busch family, and all of the Rowdy Nation fans which some of them we are friends with. The episode will be up later today in all the usual places (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, etc.) and I hope that you keep your people close because you never know when you’ll see them last.

- Will

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You're listening to the Throttle of the Floor podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Words, words are not wording. Yeah, it's been a very sad last day and a half.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Two day and a half, two days or around around that time span. Yes. You know, I I was excited for Charlotte weekend and the Indie500 weekend and the Wieny 500, which just wrapped up. You know, Prime's back. You know, yippee, no more Fox, but what happened trumps everything. This sucks. Yes. This really this really does suck. I mean, just it it may be it may be cliche, but my emotions feel like a mixed bag of MMs. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

I mean He was the candyman after all.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Yes. I mean, with with this and you know, on on the other side of the coin, it's like I got like today was my last day of high school and my girlfriend graduates in a few hours, and so it's like it's hard to deal with this and yet not still be happy about the other things. It's just yeah, life is fragile.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Take every day as is your last.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

If you cannot tell who we're talking about, it is Kyle Bush. He uh sadly passed away last night about five o'clock yesterday.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Five five five thirty somewhere, somewhere around that.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

And uh he passed away from an illness that happened in the NASCAR simulator. He was in from what we understand, he had some complications back in Walking to Glen. And he needed a doctor after the race. We don't know exactly what happened or discussed, we just know that he needed a doctor after the race. And then Dover, he seemed fine, he seemed normal. He won the truck race.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

He won the truck race seven days ago.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Yes. And in his interview, he he said you never know when's gonna be your last. Which always would stuck with me. And from what we understand, yes l yesterday he they announced before everything happened that he wasn't gonna be at the track this weekend due to some illness.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

And then about seven hours later after that post, he sadly passed away. And from what I understand from the 911 call, he was in the NASCAR simulator, and he was suddenly experiencing some blood come up. He said, I feel like he was overheating, shortness of breath, massive headaches, stuff like that. They took him to the hospital, and that's as far as we knew what happened between that and the time of death. We don't know what happened in between there and what kind of illness it was. We just understand that it was some kind of mystery illness that happened and it was a freak accident and he sadly passed away.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

We know it was a sinus cold. Yes. But it it clearly mutated into something else. Yes. I mean, I I've seen plenty of things thrown around. I'm not I'm not one to speculate, but I've I've seen sepsis thrown around a lot, but I I don't I don't want to speculate about that. It it's hard enough just sitting here just doing this. Talking about it. Yeah. I mean losing losing Biffle that that sucked. And losing Danny Hammond's father, that that sucked, especially for you. But at least at least we knew that like it was the off season. We knew it was the off season and we uh we at least knew we had time to cope. Yes. So this this is this is different. This is way different middle of the season. Uh-huh. Kyle Bush just won his 69th truck race last week. He is the most recent truck series winner. And he will not live to race another truck race or any other race.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Yeah, he won't be there for a son, and they won't be able to race each other. Yeah. As much as he wanted to, and I think everyone in the fan base wanted to. Yeah. It just unfortunately didn't happen. And it just sucks considering they had the pain scheme ready and everyone's excited. I mean, shoot, Braxton's had his birthday three days ago. Yeah. And it just just a stab in the heart in the whole NASCAR community. I mean, even people that like aren't the most casual fans know Kyle Bush.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

It's almost one of the most well-named recent NACAR drivers we have. And it it's it's shaking the whole entire community and everything. I mean, IndyCar's spoken about it. I mean, they're having a on the The scoring pile. Yeah, the scoring pile. Lap 18 they'd have a little memorium for him. I mean, it's just to hit everyone in the motor store community because he's very well known across every motorsport.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

I know NHRA's commented on it and this is sort of Yes, it's it's truly unfortunate.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Also, before we started uh recording, RCR put out a tweet saying how they're gonna retire the number eight car until Breck Brexton is ready to race. Which I I commemorate them. They're gonna pre from now on they're gonna have the 33 car as the eight car. Which is very nice of them.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Late late breaking details that just came in.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Yeah, literally about ten minutes short short recording.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

It wasn't even ten minutes, it was like yeah. It was like well, it probably was about ten minutes ago. Yes. Yeah, just and uh what time was it? Four, I think. Yeah, it was yeah, it was four PM Central Time, five PM Eastern that NASCAR's gonna hold a press conference. Yes. Uh live streamed on NASCAR.com. Um this just sucks. Everything about the whole situation just awful just awful. I mean, seven days ago you go from winning the Dover truck race just gone.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Yeah. You never know when should be your last.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Yeah. And not in the way that anybody expected. 41. I mean, that's way too young. Ky Kyle Bush was younger than my parents.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Yes, so are mine. And uh Mother Nature has to say a thing about that too for Coke Hunter.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Rain all weekend. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

It's not gonna get rain.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

The m earliest they might be able to do it's Tuesday. Because Monday is looking like a washout for them too.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

Yeah, I just I think the la every every time like I've seen like the forecast, it just it's I can't get Texas 2020 out of my mind. And of course, we know who eventually won that race on that Wednesday night that they finally ran it.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Cowblished and his final JGR cup ride. Or no, was that his final JGR win?

SPEAKER_00 7:22

No, his final JGR win was Bristol Dirt 22.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

That's right. A friend did win that race.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Yeah. And he won uh Kansas in the spring of 21 on his birthday weekend.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Oh yeah, the Mick Bushy Bushes. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

And uh Pocono in 21, the second doubleheader race. Back when Pocono used to have a doubleheader. He didn't have fourth gear. That was wild. That is right. I forgot about that. 234 national series wins across all three top series. That is a record. 102 O'Reilly series victories. That is a record. 69 truck series victories, that's a record. 63 cup wins, that's ninth all time. No matter what way you slice it, no matter what MM you shake out of the bag, Kyle Bush is a first ballot Hall of Famer. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

The Candyman will be the first Hall of Famer. First battle Hall of Famer.

unknown 8:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

Too bad Kurt Bush or nobody else will get to see it.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Yes. Unfortunately.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

And I don't know if we're ever gonna see anybody accomplish the Triple Crown of winning a cup championship, an O'Reilly championship, and a truck championship. I don't know if we're ever gonna see I mean, Biffle came close. He won a truck title, he won an O'Reilly's title, and he finished second in points in 2005 with six wins. But of course, we'll never see that. And then Kyle Bush had the O'Reilly's title in 09 and two cup titles in 15 and 19. But he still needed a truck title. And I think it was pretty widely speculated that after he was done cup driving, he was gonna run in the truck series um for you know five or six years or so. Hopefully, you know, win a truck title, become the first to win all three, and then hand the keys over to Brexton.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

It's gonna be a sad race weekend all around. No matter if you're the Indy 500, the Coke 600, truck race, the O'Reilly's race, Canadian Grand Prix for F1.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

It does it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

Everyone will be in their Kyle Bush uniforms. If you if you either loved him or hate him, but everyone could rejoice this weekend and celebrate him. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

This racing weekend. Here's the thing whether whether you love Kyle Bush or you hated Kyle Bush, you know, like me for much of my time watching NASCAR. I've been watching NASCAR for like a decade, same with you, Evan. Or you just like Kyle Bush because you really loved Eminem's as an eight-year-old kid. Yes, the candy man. I've I've learned to respect Kyle Bush. He's a damn good race driver he was he was a damn good race car driver. There's no doubt about that. Yes. As much as I disliked him, he was a damn good race car driver. I remember uh back back in my childhood days. I say that and I'm 18 years old, but like, you know, from like five or six years ago on back to basically when I first started watching NASCAR, I didn't like Kyle Bush. Okay. And I actually boycotted MMs because every time I'd eat MM's, he'd go on to win. I'm I'm I'm dead serious. Yeah. And I remember Easter of 22, I it was it was this it was a little pack of MMs. I'm talking the little pack that you'd find in like an Easter egg. And I ate those, and he won the Bristol Third Race. I'm like, I'm done eating MMs, and then MMs left the sport. Yes. And then it took like a year for the effects to wear off because he was still good in 23, and then yeah, but at the same time, hindsight is 2020. 2023 Gateway is his last cup one. Yes. And it will forever stand the test of time. But that's always that's always the first thing I remember when I think of Kyle Bush is how much I boycotted MMs. And it's like I still loved Eminem's, but I refused to eat them because I didn't want Kyle Bush to win. And yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

For me, it was the 2016 Richmond race with him and Carl Edwards in that battle. That was one of the best battles of Richmond I've ever seen. No matter who won that race, that was a great race. And then also his 2015 from breaking his leg at Daytona to winning the championship in November. Yes. No matter who you asked, that's still pretty cool. No matter how how how the playoff format works, yeah, no matter how it was, that's still a good feel good story on you can still win a championship for losing so many races. But now in this era of NASCAR with the chase format back, no. Yeah. There's you're never gonna have another driver do that ever again.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

Yeah, I just did Cobbish deserve to win the championship in 2015? No. But you know what? That was the playoff system then, and he took advantage and did what he needed to do, and it was such a great comeback. One of the greatest comebacks. Yes in all of NASCAR history, all of motorsport history, all of sports history. Sad days. Sad days. I just I feel for his family. I feel for Samantha, I feel for Braxton, for Lennox, for Kurt, for everybody. For his legions of fans, people who loved Kyle Bush a lot more than I did.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Uh it's hard to go on with the weekend. Yeah. But it's a business. Yeah. Same way with with how Dale Jr. or not Dale Jr. Dale Earnhardt. Dur Dale Earnhardt passed away in 2001. They still had a race the next weekend. Yeah. It just sucks. Cause it's the first time a current active driver passed away since Dale did back in 01. So it hits a lot a lot more people.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

Yeah. Because he's an active driver. Of course, we weren't alive in 2001, but I imagine that if Dale dying is in 2001, if it happened today, I imagine this is pretty similar to what it would feel like.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Yeah. I feel like it'd be pretty accurate to what it is today.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Yeah. But it just it sucks. It sucks. It's gonna be hard to watch television. I mean, I was I was at Casey's this morning, uh going to buy these MMs, I couldn't even look straight in the candy aisle. I remember when you were in the Casey's car back in 20 yeah three or four, it was it was either twenty-three or twenty-four, but it was at Kansas. I remember that I remember that car.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

And then this Quickstar car from Road America. I just I don't know. That's just my a few of my thoughts from the whole situation.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Yeah. I mean, I'm sure we'll learn in the coming days, weeks, months what all happened, but we we we don't want to speculate. Yeah, we don't know for that. You know.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

We don't want to put misinformation on versus effects. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

It's just a sad deal.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

Yeah, Kyle Bush hadn't won a cup race in almost three years, but he still had a lot left in him, especially in the truck series, and it's just even off the track with his foundation and just as a person, as a husband, as a father, it's just it's sad. Doesn't matter if you love him or hate him. Somehow we have to preview other news because as the real, you know, professional racing series has to continue on as a business, we have to somehow continue on and at least do a little bit of previewing. You may have noticed that uh there is basically no notes in existence, and that's because I wanted to just I wanted I wanted to spew this episode raw from the heart.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

In a way, in at least from my scope of things, it's it's kind of wild in a way. Like wild thing. Like he'd want.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

But business is the business. Business is business.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

So we started off today with the Weenie 500. Yes. So I'm trying to get on the liner note here. On a liner note, the Weenie 500? Yes. That was that was some that was actually pretty good racing for the stuff.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

They were slinging the wieners, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:40

Yes, they were slipping a slide in the wieners. And then hot wieners. And then depending on how the weather it is at Charlotte, it's currently raining there right now. They might run the truck. Weatherman Evan with the forecast. Weather not looking good. For the truck series tonight, it's not looking great. Yeah. Same with O'Reilly's hand truck.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

Yeah, this is just whole weekend, it's gonna rain. Monday today, it probably gon' rain. Yes. Uh-uh. Probably.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

It's it's just one of those things where there's storms that pop up all in the southeast. There's nothing you can do about it. Yeah. It's not like a front where it wipes everything out.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

It's not it's not like up here in the Midwest where it's a front. It's like down south. It's just pop up pop up thunderstorms every day.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

So it's just it's just sucks for everyone.

unknown 17:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Who knows if we're even gonna be racing at Charlotte this weekend? Catherine Lake might get screwed up to the double. She might get screwed.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

Yeah, then Sunday we have the Indy 500.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

Yeah. Indy five hundred.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

Don't know if that's gonna be well, that should be able to get run.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

I mean I I I think it'd be fine. Yeah. They they were say they were saying that the weather was looking good for race day, anyways. Um Alex Pillow on the poll. Yes. Looking to go back to back. Candy in the Indy 500. Can he though is the question? Can he? Can he? Can he though? Uh also uh other good news that I don't know if we shared on the last episode. I don't think so, but Alexander Rossi has been cleared to run the Indy 500.

unknown 18:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

Some good news. Yes. Little golf club. Yes. It's hard to do a preview when you can't get your mind off of things. Yeah. It's hard.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

All you all y'all really need to know is that Yes, it's one of the most exciting days in racing the whole year. But there's a big rain cloud over the mines, the racetracks, the drivers. So it's just it's just gonna be one of those weekends where it's gonna be depending on how if we even get the race this weekend as Coke to even do a Monday episode.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

Yeah. Cause it's at this at this rate with the forecast, we might just have to do one at one big episode like next Friday. Yeah. And just kind of combine them all a bit. And if and if we want to speak on the front of next Friday, that's you know, that that's already a huge episode in itself because it's the first I I I don't want to get too ahead of myself, but it's it's the first weekend with everything. Cup, O'Reilly's, and trucks are in Nashville, which includes Cletus. Yes. And the O'Reilly's car. So that that in itself is gonna be emotional. Indie cars at Detroit, on the streets of Detroit the week after the Indian 500, and NHRA has the second of four new treks. Yes. With Maryland, with the Potomac Nationals. So yeah. That I mean that's that's already a full house right there, and that would just, you know, if we have to talk about this weekend's racing on the following Friday, that just adds to it. So man. I think it I think it perfect I think it perfectly encapsulates how we're just feeling just dreary, rain, suffering.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Sorry, sorry for like not a lot a lot of energy today in the episode. They're suffering. Yes. Everyone in the community of racing is suffering.

unknown 20:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

But it's hard to put words to it. It's it's it's hard to describe it, it's hard to understand it. I mean we're suffering, Kyle Bush fans are suffering, and it's like it's hard for us to process as fans, as people who cover the sport, who cover motorsports. It's even harder when you're actually in the circle, when you know Kyle Bush, when you're the family of Kyle Bush. It's hard. There's really not that much else to talk about. I mean we could we could do a full preview show, but it's just we don't have the energy. No out of out of respect for out of respect for Kyle and the whole Bush family, it's just it it doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel right. And I mean, even if we did a full preview show, like if this never happened, we might not even get racing in this weekend.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Yeah. Mm based on the weather is not right.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

So And I mean In the background, we got uh NASCAR the game inside line. We got kabush loaded up on Las Vegas. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

With the controller.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

Yeah, that's yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

The PS3 controller is inactive, but yeah, we got we got we got cabush over there in the background. Yes. Yeah. And we even we even got the jegs hat. Yes. Used to run jegs on his on his late model.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

Yeah, and and some KBM tricks.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

And some of his cobh movies.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

I just put the ball knowledge on the JEGS.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

Man, what a what a run for what a run for jegs. It's like first we got the Jegs hat from Chicago, and then you know, this, and then uh next week it's like uh the Potomac Nationals is being presented by Jegs. Yes. So we seem to like Jegs a lot. It's hard to sit here and spit words out of my mouth. It's hard to even try and lighten the mood a little bit. Like it's just it's hard.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

I mean I woke up this morning and I contemplated not even doing an episode, but I knew I at least wanted to do something.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

Yeah. A m more of a memorial episode.

SPEAKER_00 23:25

Oh yes.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

But I feel like on that note, we will maybe see all Monday.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

Maybe maybe Monday, maybe Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday? A a day. Sometime next week. There there will there will be at least one episode next week. Yes. Is is is there is there a good chance that it'll just be next Friday with a combination of the recap from this weekend into the preview of next weekend with how busy that is, and that's not even to mention the fact that I graduate next week. Yeah. That's terrifying. But yeah, so but I think I think you're right on that. On that note, that that that that pretty much covers it. Um we're we're gonna we're gonna eat these MMs and cry and run NASCAR the game inside line. Yes. Um Yeah, that that that kinda about wraps it up, so yeah. Um you know, just this episode, like any episode, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, you know, the whole the whole works. Um but sad deal. Sad deal. Sad sad days and after that. Sad days. Sad days. This hurts, and we feel the hurt, and we just we hope that Samantha and Brexton and Lennox and Kurt Bush and everybody in the Bush family and all of his all of Kyle Bush's legion of fans that love him a lot more than we do. Me and Evan do. And Richard Childress and RCR and even even Joe Gibbs and JGR and Rick Hendrick and Hendrick, just everybody. Everybody in the NASCAR community, everybody in the motorsports community, every just everybody. We just we hope that you can find some healing. Yes. In these trying times. But that's gonna do it here for I guess today's memorial episode of the Thorfloor podcast. Sad, sad days. Yes. And maybe we'll see y'all on Monday or Tuesday or it might just be next Friday. Yeah. Who knows? We'll we'll see what the weather weatherman Evan has said it's not good.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

No, it's not, it's not like great.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

Is it raining sideways?

SPEAKER_01 26:10

Not yet, but it's gonna it's gonna be raining sideways.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

It raining sideways. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:14

But on that note, y'all do keep your loved ones close. You never know when it's gonna be your last time you're gonna see them.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

Yeah. So I mean, I just I can't I can't get that Dover win interview out of my mind.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

Yeah. I mean, just You never know when's gonna be your last.

SPEAKER_00 26:33

Yeah. And to think Amanda Busick, who did the interview, she almost got crushed by a pit box. Like the next day. And then she went to NHRA Chicago on Sunday and we were there and while we didn't see her, we ran into a bunch of other people. Yeah. It's just keep your people close. Yeah. Give 'em a hug. Because you never know when you give a hug and it's the last hug you'll ever give. So But with that note, uh we'll see y'all sometime next week. Yes. So have a good night, y'all.